Harriet Harman has called for a full, independent inquiry into the Jimmy
Savile child sex abuse scandal saying victims needed to know that lessons
had been learnt.

Labour's deputy leader said it was not enough for investigations to be left to the BBC, because the DJ's long campaign of abuses took place across a number of institutions, including hospitals and children's homes.

Warning that it was "complacent" to assume that the abuse was from a bygone era, she said it was important to learn why victims did not feel able to complain about Savile until after his death, and why those who did raise the alarm were not believed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Mrs Harman said: “Progress has been made - and it has been hard fought-for progress - but I think it’s always dangerous to say ‘oh well, that couldn’t happen now’.

"You can’t just assume that those changes go all the way - there are still people who are vulnerable and not listened to.

“The result is if people are not listened to and they’re not believed, what happens is the abuse persists and I think that that’s a lesson that we still have to learn.

"Yes, we’ve made a lot of progress but there are still people in positions of power who abuse those positions of power with vulnerable people and then those vulnerable people are not believed and others therefore suffer abuse.

“So I think the idea that you’ve got separate inquiries – one into the BBC set up by the BBC, one into the hospitals – and that we’ve got a number of different inquiries is a problem because we’re looking at one man and how he manipulated the whole system.

“We need to have proper independence. If you are a victim of this crime, then you want to know that really the truth is going to be found because somebody is really independent who’s looking into it, not that the BBC has been left to do their own investigation, and I think that’s the Government’s responsibility to say ‘this is very serious and it should be looked into independently’.”

The Government appears to be divided over whether a public inquiry will be held into the Savile scandal. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has said that the Government would consider the option, while Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, appeared to rule it out, saying that it was up to the police to investigate what took place.

Mrs Harman said that it was right that the police were seeking to discover if prosecutions could be brought against any other people, but added that the fact that Savile was dead and could not face justice meant an independent inquiry was necessary to get to the bottom of what happened.

“What we need to do is get to the truth," she said. "Clearly something terrible went on for many years across a number of institutions and I think we need to learn the lessons. We know from experience that the best way to learn the lessons is to have a proper independent inquiry.

“It is of course the job of the police to discover whether or not there are any criminal inquiries that can lead to prosecutions of people who are still alive, but Jimmy Savile is dead and therefore will not be able to stand trial.

“What is necessary is that those who have had great pain and suffering – to be abused as a young person, and to feel trapped with your guilt and disgust and not able to speak out - for years they weren’t able to speak out about it.

"And we have to understand why for years they had to live with it on their own with all the difficulties it has caused them without being able to speak out, or they did speak out and they weren’t believed.”

“One of the really key questions that we all need to understand and learn lessons from is why did so many people feel that they couldn’t complain, that they weren’t able to complain, or why did those people who did complain, why were they not believed.

“If ever there was something that needs an independent inquiry, [it is] serious sexual offences against many, many children across a range of institutions. If that’s what an independent inquiry is not for, I don’t know what is.”